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Kenneth L. Pike (19122000)

Woodstock Academy Valedictory

We are now on the threshold of our graduation, and as we look back over
our four years' work we realize that it is not the facts themselves which we
have learned which are important, but only their application to our present
life.

This is apparent if we take the poems, literature and grammar studied
in our English department and consider them from this point of view. We see
that these are not important in themselves, but if we use them to make our
lives fuller, nobler, and more soul satisfying, it is indeed worth while and
the four years have not been spent in vain. I can best express my thought by
expressing Emerson, who says, "When a mind is simple and receives divine
wisdom, then old things pass away - means, texts, teachers, temples fall. It
lives now and absorbs past and future into the present hour."

In our sciences, too, we have learned how it makes no difference
whether or not we have learned facts and rules, if we do not apply them to our
needs in life.

Aviation is one of the many fields of endeavor which apply these rules
and in which one may use the knowledge gained here. The principles taught here
are used so much that one has to have them to succeed in this work. Indeed,
leaders of this field are everywhere urging that one have a further training if
he wishes to become a leader also. The application of what one has learned here
will help one to gain this training.

Aviation and its teachings is only one of the many occupations of which
Woodstock Academy and its teachings is a foundation, whether further education
is gained through schooling or through experience. It is a foundation, and a
sure foundation, for this and for the other professions.

Classmates: In these four years we have learned to love our Alma Mater,
so now, as we say farewell, let us go with a resolve that we shall ever be true
to her. We shall do our best to show our appreciation of what she has done for
us by ever climbing higher, so that she may be proud of us and be glad to
welcome us as her own.

KENNETH PIKE

Published in the Putnam Patriot, Putnam, Conn. Thursday, June 21, 1928